I have been collecting shot glasses for more than ten years. I
started by buying souvenir glasses from places that I had visisted,
maybe one or two a year. Then I saw an episode of M*A*S*H where the
guys in the swamp were playing a game of checkers, but instead of using
normal checkers, the men were shotglasses filled with alcohol. I
thought that this would be something fun to try -- all I needed was a
few more shotglasses.

It took me a few years until I had enough glasses, since I was still
only purchasing one or two a year, and getting a few from friends and
family. Once I had enough glasses, I made a board and brought it out
the next time I had some friends over. My first game was difficult,
since I could not remember the rules -- all I did was mirror the moves
of my opponent. (For those of you who, like me, do not remember the
rules and strategies required for checkers, this is one of the worst
strategies; you eventually get to a point where you lose at least one
man with every move!)

There are two versions of the game: version 1) If your man gets captured,
you drink it. version 2) If you capture a man, you have to drink it. The second
version is a way of equalizing the game: give the better player a
handicap by making them drink more. Unfortunately, in my first game, we
were playing with the first set of rules :) I have played the game with
shots of whiskey and vodka, or shots of mixed drinks or even beer.

Having enough glasses to play checkers was my original goal, but I
did not stop collecting when I got there. I still purchased a few
glasses a year, mainly from places that I had visited. Even though most
of the places that I visited were selling shotglasses, I still felt as
if I was the only person collecting them. Most people that I met had
one or two glasses in a cabinet or on a shelf, but nobody had a
collection. Then I went to an estate sale with a friend, and they had a
bunch of glasses for sale. Many of them were older glasses with designs
that were very different than most of the glasses that I have. They
were not glasses advertising some product, nor were they souveniers from
someplace someone had visited. They had designs that were cute or
humorous. They had cartoons on them, and funny sayings, and I wanted
more of them. Somebody had collected these in the past, so I needed to
start visiting places with things from the past.

I started visiting antique stores and flea markets. Although many
antique stores will not carry shotglasses because they are relatively
new and relatively inexpensive, quite a few shops have them. I have had
the greatest success at Antique Malls -- places where many smaller
dealers rent out "booths" under the same roof. Although some
of my friends have had luck finding glasses at garage sales, I have
not.

As the internet grew, I communicated with a few other collectors via
e-mail, and heard about the Shotglass Club of America. I joined the
club and purchased two books written by Mark Pickvet who also ran the
club. The club had a monthly newsletter, which consisted primarily of
drawings of shotglasses sent in by the members. The club no longer
exists.

The books written by Pickvet are the only books that I have found on
the topic of shotglass collecting.

I have found two other books on "Spirit Glasses" which are
thin-sided advertising glasses from the pre-prohibition era. Although
"spirit glasses" or "sample glasses" occasionally
show up with shotglasses, they are usually much more expensive: $10-20
for a spirit glass versus $3-5 for a shotglass.